[access-uk] The sound of silence?
- From: Gordon Keen <gordonkeen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:05:11 +0100
Could they not just bung a lolly stick in the spokes?
From *The Register*
US lawmakers to de-silence electric cars
Or make them smelly
By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco
Posted in Government, 25th April 2009 00:37 GMT
A bill that will require electric and hybrid cars to make enough noise
so that blind folks can hear them coming has been introduced in the US
Senate.
The bill, S. 841 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.
841.IS:) - more pedestrian-ly known as the Pedestrian Safety
Enhancement Act of 2009 - doesn't specifically mention adding noise to
otherwise silent vehicles. It merely instructs the US Secretary of
Transportation (http://www.dot.gov/bios/lahood.htm) to conduct a study
to devise and require a "non-visual alert regarding the location,
motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle."
Sounds like noise to us, though. After all, what else would work? Smell?
Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind,
endorsed the bill, saying in a statement (http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=437
) that "The blind, like all pedestrians, must be able to travel to
work, to school, to church, and to other places in our communities
without being injured or killed."
Sounds fair. Not being injured or killed is a reasonable request.
Should S. 841 and its nearly identical counterpart in the US House of
Representatives, H.R. 734 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-734
), make it into law, don't expect noisy 'leccies to be roaring up your
roadway anytime soon. Both bills allow for two years for the "non-
visual alert" study and another two for car manufacturers to implement
the standard.
Add in the bill's alloted six months for various administrative-
overhead items, and it will be, at minimum, not until 2014 until your
new Tesla Roadster (http://www.teslamotors.com/) will be equipped to
not injure or kill the blind. ®
Regards
G
From glorious Devon, England.
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- » [access-uk] The sound of silence? - Gordon Keen
